FLORISTIC REGION

also called Floristic Kingdom, or Floral Kingdom, any of six areas of the world recognized by plant geographers for their distinctive plant life. These regions, which coincide closely with the faunal regions (q.v.) as mapped by animal geographers, are often considered with them as biogeographic regions. The chief difference is the recognition by plant geographers of the Cape region of South Africa as a distinct major unit because of its rich flora, which includes more than 1,500 genera, 30 percent of which are native nowhere else in the world. The regions are: Boreal (North America, Europe, northern and central Asia, and North Africa), Palaeotropical (including African, Indo-Malaysian, and Polynesian subregions), Neotropical (South and Central America), South African, Australian, and Antarctic. The Australian region is the most isolated, followed closely by the South American portion of the Neotropical region. Both of these areas contain a large number of unique plant species. Madagascar, long separated from Africa, is sometimes considered a separate region because of its unusual flora.